Fayose's planned projects commissioning fraudulent ----APC

(Nigeria) The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State has described as fraudulent all the projects listed by Governor Ayodele Fayose for commissioning on Friday.

It said while the six governors he had invited for the event were inaugurating fresh projects in their states, the governor embarked on rehabilitated projects and the ones he did not spend one naira to be presented to the world as new projects initiated by him.

Publicity Secretary Taiwo Olatunbosun said in a statement on Wednesday that people were not deceived by "this clear fraudulent practice by the governor that has become his trademark".

Decrying the cloudy manner the governor was allegedly conducting government business, Olatunbosun cited alleged fraudulent disbursement of the bailout cash of N9.6billion that the governor could not account for to the people.

"The ICPC and NLC report, after investigating how the bailout cash was spent by the states,  found out that Ekiti State was owing one month salary (October 2015) when the bailout of N9,604,304,000.00 was paid to the state.

"Ekiti State debts incorporating salaries and emoluments, including severance allowances to political office holders, totalled N3,000,266,146.64.

"But without paying these salaries and emoluments, the governor declared that N9,213,816,252.55 was disbursed leaving the balance of N390,613,747.50.

"What he disbursed N9,213,816,252.55 for, nobody knows; nobody knows where the purported balance of N390,613,747.50 is kept, yet the governor is owing workers four months salaries," he explained.

"Fayose must have deceived the ICPC with face disbursement schedule.  We challenge Fayose to publish names of the beneficiaries  of his purported N9.6 billion bailout fund.

Urging the governor to explain to Ekiti people on what projects he disbursed N9.2billion, Olatunbosun added that all the projects listed for commissioning are not new projects, explaining that most of them are expanded projects for which Ekiti people would be made to pay for as new projects.

"Awedele road is an expansion project that he had earlier listed for commissioning during his first year anniversary.

"The governor removed the electricity poles purchased by former Governor Kayode Fayemi and kept in the Government House for rural electrification and repainted them to look like new poles for electricity projects in Awedele and Bank Road.

"The newly constructed Funmi Olayinka Women Centre at Fajuyi is a N600m TETFUND project funded by a bank originally planned to be located at the Ekiti State University campus, but because Fayose wanted to con people with the project, he forced its relocation to Fajuyi area of the state capital and has been deceiving Ekiti people that he built that edifice.

"The same is Ikere-Ekiti N400m road dualisation funded by another bank as its social responsibility project in Ekiti State, yet the governor has been deceiving Ekiti people and the six governors that he built the road for Ikere people.

"Unfortunately, it is this fraud that these six governors are coming to celebrate with Fayose and Ekiti people while in their states, fresh projects have been commissioned," he said.

Wondering why the six governors had no words of advice for Fayose about his outlandish public conduct, the party said:

"We want to alert the six governors that what they are coming to do in Ekiti State is a celebration of fraud and not a celebration of a new lease of life for Ekiti people."

Olatunbosun also asked the Federal Government to keep an eye on Fayose in his overhead bridge project, saying this became imperative because "the governor is notorious for shoddy construction jobs".

"The Federal Government must note that Ado-Iyin-Ifaki road is a federal road on which Fayose is trying to construct an overhead bridge.

"For a governor notorious for shoddy construction jobs that collapse six months after commissioning as can be seen during his first term and the recently constructed road in his town, that overhead bridge project should not be entrusted in the care of Fayose, otherwise Ekiti people stand the risk of collapsed overhead bridge with its attendant catastrophe," said.

He added that the governor never planned to construct the over-head bridge, explaining that he embarked on the project when he found out that the refund on Federal roads to the state was being investigated by anti-corruption agencies.

"The governor several times denied that he ever collected refunds on federal roads even though both President Goodluck Jonathan and former Minister of State for Works, Dayo Adeyeye, told Ekiti people that the refunds were made to the state on federal roads constructed by Fayemi.

"Information supplied by Fayose's commissioner for finance to the anti-graft agencies recently on Ekiti finances forced the governor to quickly surrender the money for the over-head bridge," he said.